Twitter Social Media, or Advertising Center?

The fundamental design of twitter from the very beginning has been to become one of the greatest marketing platforms ever according to the twitter founders themselves, so then, why today do so many insist that twitter is a social platform?

Lets take a look at twitters very design to see if it fits in the social criteria.

Twitter Social Media, or advertising center, Twitter following.

Twitter allows you to follow anyone and following someone is not the same as friending someone, so what does it mean to follow? Following simply means that you will view that persons relevant "news" updates on that persons life, work, or social updates. There are so many things it's hard to count, but by this systems very design, it promotes people following one person who tweets, and not a reciprocal relationship.

Twitter Social Media, or advertising center, what is twitter then, if not a social platform?

The answer, twitter more closely resembles an opt in mail subscriber base. While there is a low level of intimacy amongst those who remain with few followers, and follow back. The intention of twitter has always been, to get as many followers as you can. These followers will see your daily status updates "by choice".

Twitter Social Media, or advertising center, Twitter is opt in advertising!?

Twitter when you look at it in this format more closely resembles a user controlled media forum, where you choose which stories get heard. However, instead of voting, you simply follow those who have something you want to hear. This could mean following an RSS feed on Digg or perhaps your local magazine, maybe even the newspaper.

Twitter Social Media, or advertising center, why get on twitter then?

People like to keep up to date on the latest developments, and nearly every business or media platform has it's place on twitter today. If you like viewing the great channel 5 news expos, and exclusives, then you get on twitter and you follow the channel 5 news expo for the latest in local news.

Twitter Social Media, or advertising center, why do so many people have so many reciprocal followers then?

In this regard Twitter closely resembles a traffic exchange, where you are agreeing to opt in to seeing each others content, on the foundation that you both will receive advertising income based on your tweets. This is the end goal of many of those who strive to achieve a massive follower base.

Twitter Social Media or advertising center, how effective is twitter in marketing?

People are happy to click on a link just out of curiosity or boredom, and getting the traffic isn't much of a problem. While getting traffic isn't an issue, I have no sales foundation to say whether it will improve your sales or not.

The reality is many of the people will be clicking your link out of curiosity, and not out of a real interest in a product. Though they may be willing to read material, I suspect not many sales actually come of it, with the exception of one marketing niche... Marketing money making schemes to the very people who are trying to operate one.

Closing,

In the end it's up to you whether you choose to use twitter as a social platform, or an advertising platform, but be warned there may soon come a time when Twitter takes social networking out completely, in favor of the advertising medium charging per "Tweet".

Twitter has now been in existence for a fairly long time and they have stated more then once that their objective is to monetize Twitter. just the same as facebook has their promoted advertisements so will Twitter have promoted Tweets. The comments section is below. If you have any founded reason to believe that Twitter is social media, by all means lets hear it.

Twitter sales interesting read. "Twitter as a marketing platform"